james

3 years

Why i still have swollen lymph node at groin area

hi. i have diaghnosed syphilis in aug and already get treatment with one dose of penicillin. May i know why i still have swollen lymph node at groin area and i started serious hair loss.

Dr Ramzdhan,

5 years

  • Thank you for your question. Based on your treatment received, you have a recent syphilis infection of less than a year. Syphilis is commonly treated based on duration of infection, in which generally divided into an infection <1 year or infection >1 year. An infection of > 1 year needs 3 doses of penicillin injection over the time interval of 3 weeks.

  • Based on the description, you are having are the symptoms of secondary syphilis. Patient in secondary syphilis experiences non-itchy rashes, wart-like lesions (condyloma lata), hair loss, muscles aches, fever, sore throat and swollen lymph nodes. These signs and symptoms may disappear after a few weeks or persists for a year.

  • Swollen lymph nodes happened when there inflammation or infection in our body. Our body immune system will produce inflammatory cells in the region of the given lymph nodes, as in your case it is around the groin area. The lymph nodes increases in size with increase number of white blood cells inside it that helps to fight off the infections. This is a protective responses from our body.

  • Hair loss can happened in small percentage of syphilis patient (about 10%). It is known as syphilitic alopecia. The hair loss can also occurred in hair bearing area other than the scalp. It is non-scarring and doctor take a skin biopsy of the hair loss area to confirm the diagnosis. Based on study, it normally resolved in about 3 months after receiving the appropriate treatment.

  • I hope that these explanations can help to clear your doubts on your current symptoms. If you have any questions or new symptoms developed, please consult your doctor for more information.

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